In 2004, the Office of Student Housing introduced the Campus Housing Roommate Matching System, or CHARMS. The goal of the program was to assist first-year students in selecting a roommate and to give students some familiarity with their roommates before move-in day.
After several cycles, however, CHARMS has become less effective – the program’s integrity has been compromised by the rise in popularity of Facebook. Before confirming a roommate match, many students analyze every detail of potential roommates’ Facebook profiles, evaluating social lives and personal preferences. Facebook has complicated the process of finding a compatible roommate.
In the past, the chief basis for roommate selection has been the Living Preference Questionnaire, which all students are required to fill out whether or not they participate in CHARMS, offers a comprehensive set of criteria that ultimately sorts students and pairs those with similar results. Students who opt out of CHARMS receive their roommate assignment in this way.
Roommate troubles often do not stem from CHARMS itself, but from the misconceptions that arise because the interaction occurs in cyberspace. It is tempting for students not to be completely forthright when they communicate with potential roommates. Moreover, it is common for students to base decisions on Facebook profiles, which often project carefully crafted images. This alters the dynamic of CHARMS and affects the final roommate pairing. A student may find that his roommate is nothing like his Facebook persona.
Facebook is for friends, and it does not necessarily lead to sound roommate relationships. The social networking Web site has polluted the CHARMS process and has set expectations too high for students before they move in freshman year.
It is time to re-evaluate the effectiveness of CHARMS, and future incoming students should navigate their roommate search with more caution. Blue and Gray campus tours and Office of Undergraduate Admissions information sessions should offer a holistic, realistic view of the CHARMS process, emphasizing the value of anonymity. Students deserve to know the full picture of roommate-pairing procedures at Georgetown. Students should be able to evaluate which option – CHARMS (with the unofficial Facebook corollary) or the random pairing according to the LPQ – is best for them. Both ultimately have the same goal of creating a cohesive community, but one allows for self-promotion and the other for a more impersonal selection.
A civil roommate relationship in freshman year is essential; this is a part of emerging from one’s comfort zone and learning to live with strangers. There is room for improvement in how incoming students find their roommates, and CHARMS doesn’t need to be advertised as the best or only route to roommate happiness. A complete overhaul of CHARMS is not necessary, but modifications to reflect the rise of social media and its impact on students are long overdue.
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